Offenbach am Main
Offenbach am Main ( ) is a city in Hesse, Germany, located on the southside of the river Main and part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. Offenbach has a population of 126,934. In the twentieth century the city's economy was dominated by the machine-building and leather industries, and it was also a major centre of the typography and design industries. Other important industries are the automobile and pharmaceutical industries. More than half of the city's population have a non-German background, with Turks, former Yugoslavs, Arabs, Italians, Greeks and Poles as major groups. History The first documented reference to a suburb of Offenbach appears in 770. In a document of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto II dating to 977 exists the first mention of the place of Offenbach. During the Middle Ages Offenbach passed through many hands. Only in 1486 could the Count Ludwig of Isenenburg finally take control of city for his family, and 1556 Count Reinhard of Isenburg relocated his Residence to Offenbach, building a palace, the Isenburger Schloß (Isenburg Palace), which was completed in 1559. It was destroyed by fire in 1564 and rebuilt in 1578. In 1635 Offenbach given to the Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt but it was returned to the Isenburg-Birstein Count (later Prince) in 1642 and remained in that Principality until 1815 when the Congress of Vienna gave the city to the Austrian Emperor, Francis I. A year later it was given to the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt. Always very close to the city centre of Frankfurt, Offenbach was a popular location for business. The town has its own trade fair, and many companies have opened facilities here because there are fewer restrictions and no closed businesses. French Protestants (Huguenots) came in the 17th century and settled in Offenbach and contributed to making Offenbach a prosperous city, e.g., bringing knowledge of tobacco with them and turning Offenbach into a centre for rolling cigars. The town was more cosmopolitan than Frankfurt; famous people such as Goethe and Mozart visited it several times. The Rumpenheim Palace and its park were a popular destination for monarchs in the 19th century. The city was thereafter ruled by Grand Dukes of Hesse and by Rhine until the monarchy was abolished in 1918. Offenbach became the center of the traditional design with figures such as the architect Hugo Eberhardt, the typographer Rudolf Koch, the bookbinder and designer Ignatz Wiemeler and Ernst Engel and the painter Karl Friedrich Lippmann. During the Second World War a third of the city was destroyed by Allied bombing, which claimed 467 lives. With the new district Lauterborn the city was expanded to the south in the 1960s. On the border with Frankfurt, the office district Kaiserlei was built. Offenbach is a so-called ´Sozialer Brennpunkt`(= multiple social problems area) because of unemployment, poverty, gang related crime and migration.http://www.fnp.de/rhein-main/Gangster-Ghetto-Offenbach-was-ist-dran;art801,1166004 Boroughs of Offenbach The inner town of Offenbach is quite large and has only a few suburbs. In the east the three incorporated: Bürgel (incorporated 1908), Bieber (incorporated April 1, 1938), and Rumpenheim (incorporated April 4, 1942). In the south are the newer suburbs Lauterborn and Rosenhöhe, Tempelsee, the office town Kaiserlei and the industrial area Waldheim. Economy ]] Until the early 1970s Offenbach was dominated by the machine-building and leather industries. The city hosts the German Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies to this day. The Deutscher Wetterdienst, commonly abbreviated as DWD, (translated from German as German Meteorological Service), residing in the Westend district. Offenbach was also the European center of typography, with Gebr. Klingspor and Linotype (inventors of Optima or Palatino typeface) moving to nearby Eschborn in the 1970s and MAN Roland printing machines still a major employer today. Typography and design still remain important with a cluster of graphic design and industrial design companies, as well as the university level HfG Offenbach design school and the Klingspor Museum. In recent years Offenbach has become a popular location for a wide array of services, especially from the transport sectors. Offenbach is the host to the European headquarters of Honda,"Impressum." Honda. Retrieved on 22 April 2012. "Sprendlinger Landstraße 166 63069 Offenbach" Hyundai Motors"News & Events." Hyundai. Retrieved on 22 April 2012. "Kaiserleipromenade 5 63067 Offenbach" and Kumho Tires."Impressum." Kumho Tyres. Retrieved on 9 November 2011. "Brüsseler Platz 1 63067 Offenbach am Main" File:Omega-haus01.JPG|An office building in Offenbach-Kaiserlei File:Zeitungsrollenoffsetdruck-COLORMAN.jpg|A printing machine produced by Manroland File:Honda Small Hybrid Sports Concept.jpg|Honda Small Hybrid Concept developed in Offenbach File:Sheraton-offenbach.jpg|The Sheraton Offenbach Main sights In Offenbach there is no specific Old Town, but there are several buildings which survived bombing during the war and have been restored. One of them is the Neo-baroque palace Büsingpalais with the Büsingpark, reconstructed in the 1980s. Today it is used as a congress center close to the Sheraton hotel. Between the shopping area and the Main, is the Lilipark and the Lilitemple, named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's fiancee Lili Schönemann. The most important building is the (Isenburg Palace), a renaissance palace from 1576. It is today used by the Offenbach Design University which is next to it. There is also a neoclasssic palace in the borough Rumpenheim, the Rumpenheimer Schloss it now serves exclusively as domestic dwellings but the park is public. *''Isenburger Schloss'', a Renaissance building, now used by the Offenbach Design University *''Büsingpalais'' with Büsingpark *''Wilhelmsplatz'' a square with coffee houses and three times a week a market. *Buildings of the French Protestant Church and the French Protestant Community. *Rumpenheim Palace. *Former Synagogue "Capitol" (now a concert hall next to the new Synagogue). *The Westend Quarter (19th century). *Several art deco apartment houses. *Buildings by early 20th century architect Hugo Eberhardt: "Heyne" Factory, main building of the Design University, AOK Insurance building. *Prefabricated houses by Egon Eiermann in Lauterborn Culture There are several festivals in Offenbach, some of these are: * Lichterfest im Büsing-Park (festival of lights in the park of the Büsing palais) * Nacht der Museen (with Frankfurt) * Mainuferfest * Cross Media Night Museums *German Leather Museum *Klingspor Museum, museum of typography and calligraphy *Haus der Stadtgeschichte, municipal historical museum *Rosenheim-Museum for the painter Bernd Rosenheim Gallery File:Offenbach Isenburger Schloss c.jpg|''Isenburger Schloss'' File:Büsing Palais d.jpg|''Büsingpalais'' File:Offenbach Rumpenheimer Schloss a.jpg|''Rumpenheimer Schloss'' File:OFwochenmarkt.jpg|The market on Wilhelmsplatz File:Hfg-offenbach-germany.jpg|Detail at the building of the HfG, designed by Hugo Eberhardt File:Darmstädter-straße.jpg|A typical street in Offenbach File:Klinikum-offenbach-2010.JPG|The municipal hospital File:Buchrainweg29.jpg|The house where Rudolf Koch lived, one of the art deco houses in the southwestern part of the town Population history Until the end of the 17th century, Offenbach remained a small town with less than a thousand habitants. With the coming into power of the earl Johann Philipp in 1685, the city began to develop and the population rose steadily. In the 19th century the city became industrialized and the population increased even tenfold. Offenbach is one of the German cities where Germans without migrant background make up a minority of the population. As of 31 December 2012, approx. 44.3% of residents or 55,047 people had no foreign background. In contrast to that, there were 55.7% or 69,214 people of non-German descent. The largest groups of those are: Turks: 15,000 or 12.2% former Yugoslavians (e.g. Serbs, Croats): 13,000 or 10.5% Arabs: 8,000 or 6.5% Italians: 8,000 or 6.5% Greeks: 7,500 or 6.0% Poles: 4,000 or 3.2% Afghans: 3,600 or 3% Pakistanis: 2,700 or 2.2% | valign="top" | | valign="top" | | valign="top" | |} Mayors from 1824 - present *1824–1826: Peter Georg d'Orville *1826–1834: Heinrich Philipp Schwaner *1834–1837: Peter Georg d'Orville *1837–1849: Jonas Budden *1849–1859: Friedrich August Schäfer *1859–1867: Johann Heinrich Dick *1867–1874: Johann Martin Hirschmann *1874–1882: Hermann Stölting *1883–1907: Wilhelm Brink *1907–1919: Andreas Dullo *1919–1933: Max Granzin *1947–1949: Johannes Rebholz *1950–1957: Hans Klüber *1957–1974: Georg Dietrich *1974–1980: Walter Buckpesch *1980–1986: Walter Suermann *1986–1994: Wolfgang Reuter *1994–2006: Gerhard Grandtke *2006–: Horst Schneider Notable residents Notable people born in Offenbach include: ]] * Johann André (1741-1799), founder of the music publishing firm named after him * Gottfried Böhm (1923-) architect who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1986 * Moritz Wilhelm August Breidenbach (1796–1857) a German jurist * Ray Bumatai, born here * Heinrich von Brentano (1904–1964) a German conservative politician * Olli Dittrich, born here * Hans Hotter, opera singer * Prince Philipp of Hesse, prince and governor * Helene Mayer, fencer, born here Others who have resided in Offenbach include: * Rabbi Abraham Bing (1752–1841) * Jacob Frank, Jewish religious leader * Rudi Völler, German football coach * Cornelia Hanisch, fencer, former world champion and 1984 Olympic gold medallist * Heinrich Kaminski, worked here * Friedrich Kellner, attended Goethschule here * Karlgeorg Hoefer, calligrapher and typographer * Regina Jonas, first female Rabbi, ordained in Offenbach * Rudolf Koch, worked and taught here * Fritz Kredel, studied here * Philipp Mainländer, died here * Götz Otto, actor, born here * Anthony Rother Electronic musician * Snap!, German dance group * Berthold Wolpe, notable typographer and type designer People from Offenbach File:Aloys Senefelder.jpg|Alois Senefelder File:Salomon Formstecher Rabbiner aus Offenbach am Main.JPG|Salomon Formstecher, rabbi and philosopher File:Böhm-2.jpg|Gottfried Böhm, architect Transport Roads The streets of central Offenbach are usually congested with cars during the rush hour. Some areas, especially around the shopping streets, are pedestrian-only streets. There are numerous car parks located throughout the city. The Offenbacher Kreuz is an Autobahn interchange where the Autobahnen A 3 (Cologne-Würzburg) and A 661 meet. The A661 crosses the A 3 (Cologne-Würzburg) and A 5 (Basel-Hannover). Public transport The city is connected by a major line of the S-Bahn railway system to Frankfurt. The station in the city center is Marktplatz. In general, six stations are located in Offenbach: Offenbach-Kaiserlei, Offenbach-Ledermuseum, Offenbach-Marktplatz, Offenbach-Ost, Offenbach-Bieber, Offenbach-Waldhof. Trains run every 5-10 minutes between Offenbach and Frankurt. A 24 hours Service between both cities was introduced in 2013. The journey from Offenbach Marktplatz to Frankfurt Main Station takes 15 minutes, Frankfurt Airport can be reached within 26 minutes. The city's public transportation services OVB and NIO connect all city districts to downtown by bus lines. Since the construction of the S-Bahn, the central train station, the Offenbach Hauptbahnhof, is no longer considered important. Frankfurt Airport The city is accessed from around the world via the Frankfurt Airport, (Flughafen Frankfurt am Main) which is located 12 km (7 mi) from Offenbach. The airport can be reached by car or bus and has two train stations, one for regional and one for long-distance traffic. The S-Bahn lines S8 and S9 (direction "Offenbach Ost or "Hanau"), departing from the regional traffic station, take 15 minutes from the airport to get to Offenbach. Bicycles In the summer, seasonal bicycles can be rented from nextbike, a rental company in Offenbach and Frankfurt. Sport stadium "Bieberer Berg"]] Offenbach hosts the German association football club Kickers Offenbach. The club was founded in 1901. International relations Twin towns – sister cities Offenbach am Main is twinned with: References External links * Offenbach website * Category:Offenbach am Main Category:Cities in Hesse Category:Historic Jewish communities Category:Grand Duchy of Hesse